By Reya Mehrotra

Critically acclaimed film Love Sonia made a striking cut in 2018. Bold and unabashed in its approach, the film exposes the horrors of human trafficking in India. The film is dark, unapologetic and shakes one to the core. When director Shreedhar BS set out to make a similar film on the subject, he did not want to take the same dark approach. He wanted his target audience to be children and the young adults, the most vulnerable to flesh trade. He wanted them to have access to the film and to take it to as many children as he can. And so, the animated short film Reena Ki Kahani was born.

Experts from Vihaan, a registered charitable society that is a project of Waste Management Society, Yavatmal (WMS), have been conducting online webinars in schools across India to screen the film. After the screening, experts and counsellors take up questions from children and interact with them. The short film screening is being funded by Shreedhar’s production company Shred Creative Lab. They plan to cover 1,000 schools in India to reach people at the grassroots level.

It was during the screening of Shreedhar’s film on autism, In Our World, in 2021 that Vihaan approached him to make a film on flesh trade. The idea captivated him. His first thought was a documentary following a real rescue operation. It would then be distributed to an OTT platform. But a second thought held him back. The documentary would be dark in nature and would not reach the right audience. After all, the film was meant for awareness among kids and young adults. He then heard the story of Reena and things fell into place.

“Reena was lured because of the talent she had. A lot of talented children out there, desperately looking for a chance, become victims to human trafficking. So, this was the perfect story to tell. I chose the format of animation because it could connect with children and experts from Vihaan could easily educate the villagers and children,” says Shreedhar. He wanted to take the dark and morbid subject and present it in a lighter and consumable way for children.

In 9 minutes and 30 seconds, Shreedhar, popularly known as Shred, manages to tell the true story of a talented young girl who dreams of making it big as a singer. When she is given the big opportunity and called to the city to show her talent, she dreams of a bright future. However, horror unfolds when she is instead pushed into flesh trade by a trusted acquaintance. Reena Ki Kahani is a true story based on Reena life’s who was sold multiple times across borders. She was later rescued and rehabilitated and is now settled in her married life. The short film is available on YouTube on Shred Creative Lab’s channel.

Shreedhar says that since many schools are online because of Covid, it is easier to reach a wider student-base. Once schools reopen, the team will travel to schools across India. “Some schools have started a club to talk about personal experiences, if any student has been through a similar situation. This is working well for us,” he adds.

Currently, Shreedhar is writing a Malayalam period drama on caste issues set in the 1930s. “Almost everything is done, we are in the process of writing the dialogues now. It is based on caste issues and their impact on women in 1930s India,” Shreedhar says.